Bonkers Blog March 2015

There has been a minor spat following Anna Firth’s use of the word Tosser on
Twitter. I don’t suppose anyone gives a tinker’s cuss but there is an election
coming and points have to be scored. Anna Firth purports to be shocked by the rubbish
she finds on the streets of her chosen constituency and I don’t just mean councillor Philip
Read. Many will regard it as part of the natural northern landscape while those who give it any
thought will find it unsurprising given that Bexley council’s bins are smaller than they
used to be, they won’t empty them if the lid isn’t tightly shut, they charge £30
to take away larger household goods and have their recycling centres as far away
as is possible without actually going into the next borough.

Ms. Firth
has been assiduous in reporting rubbish she finds to her council contacts and
one might wonder how she comes to have this privileged access when she is just
another ‘nobody’ seeking votes.

Her campaigns include English Votes for English Laws and persuading Southeastern to run its trains on
time but I like an optimist. The latest called ‘Don’t be a tosser’ attacks fly tippers which I might
support except that it has already dropped me in the mire with Lesnes Abbey councillor Danny Hackett.

Danny must have spent too much time reading Bonkers because he spotted that my photograph (see blog dated 7th
March) was taken an hour or two before Anna Firth’s and now he wants to know why
I didn’t tell him about the rubbish, and I suppose he is entitled to be miffed.
Danny was reporting fly tips long before Anna was chasing a Rochester seat, let
alone one in Erith & Thamesmead.

Now Danny has taken a leaf out of Anna’s book and directed her favourite T word at
me. He called me a Tory, I could be wrong but it may have been a bloody Tory.

I’d report him to Bexley’s Code of Conduct Committee which was due to meet next
Tuesday but it has been unexpectedly cancelled. It would be ironic if its
chairman councillor Cheryl Bacon could not attend due to an appointment with
Greenwich police to answer under caution questions relating to an allegation of
Misconduct in Public Office but probably we are still a few weeks away from that
being possible. By my reckoning eight people have provided the police with signed
statements to the effect that Cheryl Bacon is an industrial scale liar and no
witnesses have been willing to say otherwise. Just the
sort of person one might expect to see chairing Bexley council’s Code of Conduct
Committee.

The heap that Anna found on the Saturday morning hung around until at least the Monday
afternoon and these photographs were taken on three successive days.

You will probably recognise that this blog report, while true, is
not intended to be taken entirely seriously. Councillor Hackett and I know each
other well enough to exchange friendly insults without falling out, although I
am perhaps about to test the boundaries. He doesn’t approve of my
Conservative instincts and I totally fail to understand enthusiasm for Tony
Blair. However I will happily agree that David Cameron is not perfect, I’m not
even sure he is a Tory and maybe Anna Firth should allow me to borrow a suitable adjective, but Danny shows no sign of emerging
from the old charlatan’s spell. Maybe someone who was old enough to vote at 13 General Elections should be more forgiving of someone who has been able to vote at, err,
none at all so far!